A Mother's love
by fairytailsbluepanda
Summary: Layla's view on life with Lucy and how she continues to watch over her beloved daughter even after she's left Lucy's side. (sorry I suck at summarise) Probably a K but I rated it T just to be safe...as I'm paranoid lol.


**I do not own Fairy Tail or any of it's characters that is all down to Hiro Mashima and I take my hat off to him for creating such a wonderful series!**

**Oh...I also make no money whatsoever for writing this. I am merely expressing my love for the show and manga.**

* * *

"You can never truly understand the saying 'A mother's love' until you yourself have become a parent," were the words my mom told me once years ago. Because even if you know that a mother's (or father's) love should be eternal, unconditional and unbreakable; you always take it for granted or brush it off as not being true. Well let me tell you, that after becoming a parent you WILL understand that it isn't a load of poppycock. Any good mother does love their child with all of their heart and would be willing to sacrifice whatever is needed to keep her precious child safe.

When I had first found out I was pregnant I had been petrified, the idea that I was responsible for the small human life inside of me was scarier than facing an entire dark guild. But the moment I had felt my little baby kick, for the first time all my fears melted away. I was going to be a mummy, I would be responsible for caring for this small defenseless child, until it is old enough to care for itself. Somehow after that first kick ever maternal instinct in my body went crazy and the amount of love I held for my small kicker was unbelievable. I hadn't even met him or her yet and already his or her safety was my most important concern. But while he or she was still inside of my body, that meant I had to take extra special care of myself. Even if it had meant me leaving my precious guild behind.

All of it had been worth it though, leaving the guild, months of getting fat and feeling fed up with waiting and finally hours of long tiring labour. The moment I'd let out the final long excruciating push and heard my baby cry for the first time, it didn't matter if I had to give up everything that made me happy because I had something even more joyous in my life now.

"It's a girl." The doctors words still bring tears to my eyes. Even now. As he placed my baby girl in my arms, I couldn't stop the tears from spilling from my eyes. She was perfect, which such a cute button nose but she looked so small and so fragile as if she would break if I held her too tightly. I'd looked up at my husband to see that he too was in tears at the sight of our newly born daughter, Lucy. She was looking up at me with curious blue eyes (all babies are born with blue eyes and they eventually change at around 6 months) and I finally understood what my mother had been trying to tell me all those years ago. It didn't matter what this child did I would always support her, lover her, and be there for her in whatever way I could. All I wanted for my lovely Lucy was for her to grow up strong and healthy in a warm and loving home, so that she could have the happy childhood that I had missed out on.

Just after Lucy had been born, Jude's business had skyrocketed. Which had caused a strain on our relationship and his relationship with Lucy as he was never around to spend time with her. I knew he loved her dearly even if he didn't spend a lot of time with our daughter, because after my normal return kiss and hello, he would instantly start quizzing me on how Lucy was progressing, if she'd learned to do anything new since he'd last been home and so on. I loved to recount to him how everyday I saw her grow, change and learn new things. Jude would occasionally see some of these changes for himself but not many.

The only milestone he witnessed for himself was Lucy's first steps. And that had only been an accident, he was supposed to have been away on business but it had been cancelled last minute. Thank the stars for last minute cancellation, because I was starting to get annoyed by him always being away. Lucy didn't know her daddy at all and that made me sad, not that I minded monopolising Lucy to myself, but my dream of having a happy family was fading away. In the end it was really just Me and Lucy on our own in a large house.

Though that large house was a treasure to me because it held all of my memories with Lucy. Her first laugh, crawl, steps, teeth, words..etc. I could live with an absentee husband, in the end it was his loss.

My favourite thing to do with Lucy, was on an afternoon after we had finished with her lessons, we would go into the garden and have tea. She would then ask me to tell her stories about magic and fairytales. Which I was more than happy to oblige, I told her stories about wizards and the adventures they went on, the magic they used and many other more mundane fairytales. Lucy's favourite story, that she got me to retell over and over again was my first adventure as a celestial wizard after I joined my guild. It would hold her captivated as I told it, even though she'd heard it a hundred times before. But I never got tired of telling it to her because she looked so happy and it gave me a way to explain all about celestial magic to her. Through my stories I taught my dear daughter, to respect the spirits and never to think of them as tools, because they are real people too. They feel joy, sadness, pain and many other emotions and if that didn't make you human, then what did?

One afternoon Lucy had asked to meet a spirit and I'd gladly agreed to her request. I would have loved to introduce her to Capricorn, my first contracted spirit, but sadly the person who I had entrusted his key to had left the mansion soon afterwards. So I settled for introducing her to Cancer, seeing as the servants who I had entrusted him and Aquarius too still lived with us, and they seemed to get along like a house on fire. I didn't dare introduce Lucy to Aquarius because I wasn't quite sure how Aquarius would react. She had been very mad at me when I'd retired you see, and I worried she might of blamed Lucy for that fact. When in fact it had nothing to do with Lucy but with the fact I was dying slowly and wanted to keep myself alive as long as possible to spend even a month longer with my little girl.

It had given me great comfort to see Lucy and Cancer getting along so well. In a way it had given me hope that even when I was no longer around Lucy would always have someone there to comfort her in her time on need. It was lucky that I'd introduced Lucy to spirits at that time because only a week later my condition worsened to the point where I was bedridden most of the time.

I had a rare condition, you see, where instead of my magic entering my body and staying there. It would enter then slowly drain away faster than it could replenish. And because being a wizard, my magic is intertwined with my lifeforce it was a deadly serious problem, with no cure. So I had given my keys away as using magic only hastened the condition but that had only bought me 10 months extra. But I couldn't complain it had meant 10 extra months with Lucy, laughing and enjoying what was left of my time here with her.

It pained me though, to see Lucy hurting so much by my illness and there was nothing I could do to take her pain away. She would spend all her time with me, while I was in bed, reading to me, talking about her lessons, asking more questions about magic...but as I didn't get better she started to ask me about what was going to happen. I did what any loving mother would, I told her the truth.

I had explained that I would be going away for a very long time soon, but even though she wouldn't be able to see me anymore that I would still be with her in spirit; watching over her from heaven. This had lead to her asking what heaven was. I told her that heaven was the night sky and all the stars were the souls of people who had go away, so if she ever needed me to look up at the night sky and know that I was watching over her. The cutest thing about the whole conversation though was Lucy asked if she would be able to write to me while I was away. I couldn't help but laugh at the eager look in her eyes and told her she could write to me if she wished but I didn't think the postman would deliver to heaven...but I would still get her messages even without them being delivered. This had put her at ease and we had been able to spend my last few days on earthland happily enjoying the others company.

I'd died peacefully a couple of days later, just after Lucy had left for the night. I'd felt so tired as if I just needed a sleep and when I next opened my eyes I was no longer in my room, in that large house full of memories. Instead I was in a large garden, full of every type of flower imaginable. There were tabled scattered everywhere too, set up as if for a large tea party. It was and still to this day is beautiful to look at.

After a couple of days coming to grips with everything, I had noticed what seemed to be a large communications lacrima set in the middle of each table. Turns out this area if for the souls of us dearly departed, to see and check up on our relatives we'd left behind. I saw many different people stop by here everyday, but only a few like myself were permanent residences to this particular area, they were mainly mothers or fathers who had left youngish children behind. One lady who was close to me in age had explained how everything worked to me, as I had been beyond confused at first.

Her name was Ul and we have become fast friends since I arrived. She had told me her story one day and it was heart wrenching to listen too. She had turned herself into unmeltable ice to save her two students/ adopted boys from being killed by a hideous monster from the book of Zeref. So now she was drifting between the human and spirit world, seeing as she wasn't fully dead but wasn't fully alive either...I know right confusing.

But it was nice to have a friend here and it was nice that we often watched over our children together. Her two boys had gone their separate ways after her death, one had gone south until he found a wizards guild fairy tail, that wasn't too far away from my old guild Love & Lucky. The other had gone around looking for ways to melt Ul. Ul had been rather upset about that, threatening to whack Lyon over the head if she could. This had made me laugh, watching her get so work upped.

She enjoyed watching over Lucy with me too and it transpired she too had, had a daughter once but she had died a long time ago. I couldn't imagine the type of pain that must have caused her, losing a child is horrible and made me glad that I'd died first...but then again Lucy was suffering just as must over losing me, so maybe it wasn't such a good thing. Poor Lucy was heartbroken over losing me and to top it off Jude pretty much ignores her, deciding to be selfish by worrying and burying his own grief with work and completely neglecting Lucy.

The day of Lucy's 10th birthday had been the topping on the cake, I'd actually wanted to punch Jude for his cold treatment towards Lucy. I wouldn't believe what he's done to her the pig head fool! All Lucy had wanted was for her surviving parent to spend some time with her on her own birthday, but no he had to shout at her and make her hurt worse! To say I was furious is an understatement.

I can't bring myself to watch over Jude anymore, because he is so different to the man I fell in love with. All he cares about is power and wealth, it disgust me. And the way he treats Lucy is appalling, only talking to her when a prospective suitor is being introduced. Does he not see how lucky he is to be able to be next to Lucy as she grows up? Does he not know how much I would jump at a chance to be back by her side? Yet here he is throwing the only daughter he has away as if she is just another one of his possessions.

Lucy still continues to amaze me with how strong willed she is, never once letting her fathers mistreatment of her bring down her spirit. Instead it spurs her on in her decision to pursue a path in magic. On her 14th birthday she brings the maids who hold Cancer and Aquarius's keys and asks if she may have them. As the maid's promised me so long ago, they release my old friends from their current contracts and hand them over to an ecstatic Lucy. Who then proceeds to summon them and make a contract...even though Aquarius doesn't look too happy about the prospect of having an active master again. Cancer seems more than happy to be of service to Lucy, and her 'beautiful hair' as he said. Ul had laughed along with me at the sight of Lucy's bright red face at having her hair complimented.

Over the next two years Lucy had gone on to find Taurus's key on a dairy farm that wasn't too far away from the mansion, though I have to say I agreed with Lucy, who would have thought the zodiacs golden bull was such a pervert. After she learnt that her father was setting up an arranged marriage for her just after her 16th birthday had made up her mind to leave home, which I agreed with. The man Jude had picked for Lucy was a horrible man, who was the same age as Jude himself...I'm pretty sure I told Jude, Lucy was to be allowed to pick her own husband, before I died. I also hoped that if Lucy ran away it might wake Jude up to just what he had lost with his selfishness over the past 6 years.

I watched over Lucy in her first year away from home, worried that she wouldn't be able to cope given how sheltered she'd been. She proved me wrong. She did amazingly well, travelling from town to town, taking on smaller jobs that needed a wizards touch in each new place she stayed, collecting silver keys as she went. Her goal was to enter Fairy Tail...wait that names familiar.

"Hey Ul, which guild did your younger boy Gray, enter?" I asked my friend, who is currently fuming over the fact that Lyon was getting ever closer to melting her.

"Fairy Tail." She called back in reply.

"I think our kids could be meeting up soon then," I giggled, as my friend actually attempted to whack the gray haired idiot upside the back of the head...she does know that just a picture right? Oh well.

"Really? How so?" She turned around now to face me, all traces of anger gone.

"Well, my Lucy wishes to join Fairy Tail." I smiled, ever so proud that my little girl was turning out to be a wonderful wizard.

"Wow, well she would make a great addition to that mad house." Ul laughed, and I joined in. Watching the antics of Fairy Tail was rather fun, especially when Gray and a pink haired boy go into fights.

"Oh I hope she does get in, guild life is so much fun." I exclaimed, turning back to face the monitor to see how Lucy's birthday is going. I get greeted with the sight of Lucy being dragged away from the ruin knights by a pink haired boy that looked suspiciously familiar.

"You wanted to join Fairy Tail right?" The pink boy asked Lucy as they ran away...Oh that's where I know him from he is the boy Gray is always fighting with.

"Yeah," Lucy grinned the brightest smile I had seen grace her face in the longest time.

"Then let's go." And with that they both ran off together, towards Lucy's new home and family.

"You know Ul," I start turning back to my friend with tears in my eyes, glad that my baby girl was finally happy again after so long. "I think Lucy is going to be alright from now on."


End file.
